Prevalence of Schizophrenia among Women in Refuges for the Homeless

1993 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 405-410 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angelo Virgona ◽  
Neil Buhrich ◽  
Maree Teesson
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
Homeless Women ◽  
Lifetime Prevalence ◽  
Prolonged Stay ◽  
Psychiatric Institution ◽  
Homeless Mentally Ill ◽  
History Of

There are considerably more homeless mentally ill men than women. However the rate of mental illness among homeless women appears to be relatively greater than for men. We found the lifetime prevalence of schizophrenia among a cohort of 54 women residing in refuges for the homeless in inner Sydney to be approximately 30%. Only three of the women had a history of prolonged stay in a psychiatric institution. Schizophrenic women had resided at the refuges for longer than non-schizophrenic women.

scholarly journals Management aspects of care for the homeless mentally ill

1996 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 158-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Timms
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Inner City ◽  
Severe Mental Illness ◽  
Social Service ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
Economically Disadvantaged ◽  
High Unemployment ◽  
People With Mental Illness ◽  
Homeless Mentally Ill ◽  
The Continuum

People with mental illness have always been marginalised and economically disadvantaged. Warner (1987) has shown that this is particularly true in times of high unemployment. Poor inner-city areas have excessive rates of severe mental illness, usually without the health, housing and social service provisions necessary to deal with them (Faris & Dunham, 1959). The majority of those who suffer major mental illness live in impoverished circumstances somewhere along the continuum of poverty. Homelessness, however defined, is the extreme and most marginalised end of this continuum, and it is here that we find disproportionate numbers of the mentally ill.

Can we measure need in the homeless mentally ill? Using the MRC Needs for Care Assessment in hostels for the homeless

1992 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 1027-1034 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorna I. Hogg ◽  
Max Marshall
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
Standardized Assessment ◽  
Rehabilitation Services ◽  
Chronic Mental Illness ◽  
Needs For Care ◽  
Homeless Mentally Ill ◽  
Care Assessment

SynopsisHostels for the homeless contain many who are disabled by chronic mental illness but have little access to rehabilitation services. One approach to solving this problem might be to measure the needs of hostel residents in a standardized way and use this information as a basis for planning interventions. This study attempted to use the MRC Needs for Care Assessment Schedule to measure the needs of 46 mentally ill residents of Oxford hostels. It aimed to determine if a standardized assessment could be used in these difficult settings and if the needs it identified could form a useful basis for planning future interventions. Although it was possible to use the schedule, and although the pattern of need identified appeared broadly to reflect conditions in the hostels, it was not felt that the information produced was of sufficient quality to assist in planning services. The authors postulate that underlying this deficiency is the failure of the schedule to take sufficient account of the views of staff and residents.

scholarly journals Birmingham community mental health team for the homeless

1997 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 74-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Commander ◽  
Sue Odell ◽  
Sashi Sashidharan
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Community Mental Health ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
First Year ◽  
Community Mental Health Team ◽  
Mental Health Team ◽  
Health Team ◽  
Severely Mentally Ill ◽  
Homeless Mentally Ill ◽  
History Of

Mental health services have been criticised for failing to respond to the needs of the rising number of homeless mentally ill. We report on the first year of referrals to a community mental health team established to meet the needs of the severely mentally ill homeless in Birmingham. Most users had a psychotic disorder and a lengthy history of unstable housing, and experienced a range of other disadvantages. Although the team is successfully reaching its priority group, examination of other characteristics of users has highlighted a number of issues which should inform the future planning and development of the service.

The History of Unreason

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Samuel Teague ◽  
Peter Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Social Construction ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
Individual Responsibility ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
The Social ◽  
Health And Illness ◽  
History Of

This chapter reflects on the importance of the historical narrative of mental illness, arguing that Western countries have sought new ways to confine the mentally ill in the post-asylum era, namely through the effects of stigma and medicalization. The walls are invisible, when once they were physical. The chapter outlines how health and illness can be understood as socially constructed illustrating how mental health has been constructed uniquely across cultures and over time. To understand this process more fully, it is necessary to consider the history of madness, a story of numerous social flashpoints. The trajectories of two primary mental health narratives are charted in this chapter. The authors argue that these narratives have played, and continue to play, an important role in the social construction of mental illness. These narratives are “confinement” and “individual responsibility.” Drawing on the work of Michel Foucault and Roy Porter, the authors describe how Western culture has come to consider the mentally ill as a distinct, abnormal other.

Homelessness, Mental Illness and the Law

1997 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 341-344 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walid Abdul-Hamid ◽  
Colm Cooney
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Psychiatric Disorders ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
Homeless People ◽  
Social Background ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Major Difficulty ◽  
Legal Problems ◽  
Homeless Mentally Ill ◽  
Court Diversion

One major difficulty that faces both researchers and practitioners who work with the homeless is the lack of definitions and frameworks that assist better understanding of such people's problems and society's response to them. This article reviews the legislation dealing with homeless people's social, civil and legal problems. We tried to give this legislation's historic and social background, including a section on psychiatric disorders in this group because of then-relevance to current debate on homeless offenders. We then reviewed the legislation relevant to homeless people in general and the homeless mentally ill in particular, including the recently introduced court diversion schemes.

Police referral of compulsory admissions — a comparison study

1994 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 116-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry Doyle ◽  
William Delaney
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
Retrospective Review ◽  
Comparison Study ◽  
Police Intervention ◽  
Emergency Procedures ◽  
History Of ◽  
One Year ◽  
Property Offences

AbstractObjective: To determine the characteristics of compulsory admissions by the police and to compare them with compulsory admissions by other means. Method: A retrospective review over one year of the case records of 48 consecutive compulsory admissions after referral by the police was compared with 96 other randomly chosen compulsory referrals over the same period. Results: In both groups a majority had a chronic history of mental illness with frequent prior compulsory hospitalisation. Significant differences were found between the two groups with the police group more often younger, single, unemployed, males. They were also significantly more likely to suffer from schizophrenia and to have had their admission precipitated by behaviour of an assaultive nature, or by property offences, and on admission to spend a shorter period in hospital. Conclusions: It is suggested that at-risk case registers and the use of alternative emergency procedures will serve to lessen the need for police intervention with the mentally ill.

Conclusion

2019 ◽  
pp. 309-314
Author(s):  
Martin Summers
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
Health It ◽  
Historical Scholarship ◽  
History Of ◽  
Orthodox View

The conclusion provides a summation of the book’s main arguments and offers suggestions for further research in the history of African American mental health. It reasserts the two central theses. First, Saint Elizabeths’ psychiatrists’ construction and reaffirmation of the white psyche as the norm produced a great deal of ambiguity regarding the nature of black insanity. This contributed to the prioritizing of the white sufferer of mental illness and the marginalization of mentally ill blacks. Second, African American patients and their communities exercised agency in their interactions with Saint Elizabeths, both to shape the therapeutic experience and to assert their status as citizens. This latter argument suggests that the orthodox view that African Americans have generally had an indifferent or antagonistic relationship to psychiatry needs to be rethought, which will require further historical scholarship, particularly with respect to African American activism within the realm of mental health care.

Guilty But Mentally Ill: A Retreat from the Insanity Defense

1981 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 236-264
Author(s):  
Scott Leigh Sherman
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
Recent Trend ◽  
Insanity Defense ◽  
Constitutional Rights ◽  
Violent Crimes ◽  
The Public ◽  
Psychiatric Institution ◽  
Insanity Acquittees

Abstract“Guilty but mentally ill” legislation responds to the increasing outbreak of violent crimes and to public skepticism concerning the ability of psychiatrists to determine the advisability of a criminal's return to society. Under this alternative to the traditional insanity defense, once the defendant chooses to plead not guilty by reason of insanity, the trier of fact may elect to find him guilty, but mentally ill. This may occur when it is determined that the defendant's mental illness is not severe enough to negate culpability. The court must then sentence the defendant to a term in prison instead of committing him to a psychiatric institution.This Note discusses the origins of the guilty but mentally ill verdict and outlines the development of commitment standards for civil patients and insanity acquittees. While these standards appeared to be merging for a period of time the more recent trend has been to treat civil patients and insanity acquitees differently. This Note maintains that the guilty but mentally ill verdict involves an unnecessarily severe curtailment of the mentally ill offender's constitutional rights.The Note delineates a proposal critiquing the misconceptions on which the statute is based and the excessive restraints on liberty it causes. The proposal examines the reasons for the public's misgivings with the insanity defense and suggests that the threat to the public's safety may not be as serious as it appears. Furthermore, it indicates that while problems remain with the existing insanity defense, the solution to those problems provided by the guilty but mentally ill statute outweighs the risk that insanity acquittees pose to the public.

Deinstitutionalization and The Homeless Mentally Ill

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (01) ◽  
pp. 1-3
Author(s):  
Sarada Menon ◽  
Jayakumar Menon ◽  
P. Poornachandrika
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Special Needs ◽  
Serious Mental Illness ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
Homeless Mentally Ill ◽  
Public Body ◽  
Oxford Dictionary

According to the Oxford dictionary “Institution” is an important public body, a home providing care for people with special needs and ‘institutionalise’ is placing such persons in a residential institution. In the context of the topic being discussed, institution is a home for persons with special needs and similarly institutionalisation is placing the persons with serious mental illness, whether acute, subacute or chronic. Deinstitutionalisation is increasingly being projected as the most needed reform in the mental health care by many experts in our country, but the implications of this merit’s critical evaluation.

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